Cheng spoke with a variety of Apple employees working in different divisions at the company. She says the question, "What would Steve do?" comes up frequently among the employees:

A common thread among all these conversations was that the last year has invited constant reflection on decisions within the company. "'Steve wouldn't have let that happen' is something you'd hear all too often in the last 12 months," one source told Ars. "Anything from Maps to things such as the clusterf*** with [Apple's new retail head] John Browett."

The missteps, such as iOS 6 Maps, have upset the employees, too. "It was clear to anybody who would use it, even in the iOS betas, that Maps looks pretty bad," another source said. "If someone had showed that to Steve, he would've said, 'This looks like sh*t.' He would have actually said that. Tim did the right thing by apologizing, but the better thing would've been, like, 'We can't ship this.'"

A lot of people outside the company have tsk tsked it in the last year, saying certain things, "would never happen under Steve Jobs." From the outside looking in, saying that feels like a trite, hack move. But, the fact that it happens inside the company shows that it's still figuring out how to deal with losing its visionary leader. Considering how important he was, this is an entirely natural reaction. The question for Apple is how long will it last?